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🧵1/4
Thread of beloved passages from the mystical poem, Mantiq al-tair (Language of the Birds), written by twelfth-century Iranian, Farid al-Din 'Attar.
Paired with stunning Persian artwork.
If you're not into poetry, trust me, bookmark & read it when you've got 5, it's absolutely EPIC!
The length of the poem is about 4,500 couplets, roughly 220 pages. Here's a quick Synopsis & a few passages from "The Conference of the Birds"
All the birds of the world gather in restless assembly. They are weary of chaos and longing for a true king. The wise hoopoe, who once served King Solomon, steps forward and tells them of the legendary Simurgh—the radiant, all-knowing sovereign who lives beyond the mountain Qāf, at the edge of existence itself. The Simurgh, says the hoopoe, is the only being worthy to rule them, and the only path to happiness is to set out on the quest to find Him.
At first the birds are filled with enthusiasm, but when they learn that the Way crosses seven perilous valleys (Quest, Love, Understanding, Detachment, Unity, Bewilderment, and Annihilation of the self), terror overtakes them. One by one they offer excuses: the nightingale cannot leave his beloved rose; the peacock is obsessed with paradise; the duck clings to water and ritual purity; the owl hoards ruined treasures; the falcon refuses to abandon pride and courtly rank. Each excuse is answered by the hoopoe with a story—tales of lovers burned alive, kings who became beggars, saints who renounced everything, and ordinary souls who found God in the midst of disgrace.
The longest and most shattering of these stories is that of Sheikh Sanʿān, a renowned Muslim saint who falls hopelessly in love with a Christian girl in Georgia. For her sake he drinks wine, tends pigs, burns his prayer rug, and converts to Christianity—only to be saved at last by divine mercy and the tears of his disciples.
After countless stories and warnings, a small band of birds finally sets out. Thousands perish along the road. The survivors cross the seven valleys, each more devastating than the last. In the Valley of Love they are consumed by longing; in the Valley of Understanding their certainties dissolve; in Detachment they lose even the desire for salvation; in Unity they see that everything is One; in Bewilderment they no longer know who or where they are; and in the final valley of Self-Annihilation nothing remains of the separate “I.”
At last, exhausted and reduced to thirty birds (sī murgh), they reach the court of the Simurgh. They expect to bow before a majestic king. Instead, after a long silence, a voice speaks:
“You who have come through fire and loss, look—you are the Simurgh, and the Simurgh is you.”
A mirror is placed before them. In its surface they see not a glorious sovereign, but their own ragged, travel-worn selves. The thirty birds and the Simurgh are one and the same. The seeker, the sought, and the act of seeking dissolve into a single, radiant reality.
In that instant every question, every pain, every separate identity is annihilated in the boundless ocean of divine unity. The birds who began the journey as a noisy multitude end as a silent, eternal oneness—lost, found, and forever transformed.
ʿAṭṭār closes with a quiet prayer: may we, too, become nothing, so that we may become everything.
- The illustration on this folio depicts a scene from the mystical poem. The birds, which symbolize individual souls in search of the simurgh (a mystical bird representing ultimate spiritual unity), are assembled in an idyllic landscape to begin their pilgrimage under the leadership of a hoopoe.
Thread of beloved passages from the mystical poem, Mantiq al-tair (Language of the Birds), written by twelfth-century Iranian, Farid al-Din 'Attar.
Paired with stunning Persian artwork.
If you're not into poetry, trust me, bookmark & read it when you've got 5, it's absolutely EPIC!
The length of the poem is about 4,500 couplets, roughly 220 pages. Here's a quick Synopsis & a few passages from "The Conference of the Birds"
All the birds of the world gather in restless assembly. They are weary of chaos and longing for a true king. The wise hoopoe, who once served King Solomon, steps forward and tells them of the legendary Simurgh—the radiant, all-knowing sovereign who lives beyond the mountain Qāf, at the edge of existence itself. The Simurgh, says the hoopoe, is the only being worthy to rule them, and the only path to happiness is to set out on the quest to find Him.
At first the birds are filled with enthusiasm, but when they learn that the Way crosses seven perilous valleys (Quest, Love, Understanding, Detachment, Unity, Bewilderment, and Annihilation of the self), terror overtakes them. One by one they offer excuses: the nightingale cannot leave his beloved rose; the peacock is obsessed with paradise; the duck clings to water and ritual purity; the owl hoards ruined treasures; the falcon refuses to abandon pride and courtly rank. Each excuse is answered by the hoopoe with a story—tales of lovers burned alive, kings who became beggars, saints who renounced everything, and ordinary souls who found God in the midst of disgrace.
The longest and most shattering of these stories is that of Sheikh Sanʿān, a renowned Muslim saint who falls hopelessly in love with a Christian girl in Georgia. For her sake he drinks wine, tends pigs, burns his prayer rug, and converts to Christianity—only to be saved at last by divine mercy and the tears of his disciples.
After countless stories and warnings, a small band of birds finally sets out. Thousands perish along the road. The survivors cross the seven valleys, each more devastating than the last. In the Valley of Love they are consumed by longing; in the Valley of Understanding their certainties dissolve; in Detachment they lose even the desire for salvation; in Unity they see that everything is One; in Bewilderment they no longer know who or where they are; and in the final valley of Self-Annihilation nothing remains of the separate “I.”
At last, exhausted and reduced to thirty birds (sī murgh), they reach the court of the Simurgh. They expect to bow before a majestic king. Instead, after a long silence, a voice speaks:
“You who have come through fire and loss, look—you are the Simurgh, and the Simurgh is you.”
A mirror is placed before them. In its surface they see not a glorious sovereign, but their own ragged, travel-worn selves. The thirty birds and the Simurgh are one and the same. The seeker, the sought, and the act of seeking dissolve into a single, radiant reality.
In that instant every question, every pain, every separate identity is annihilated in the boundless ocean of divine unity. The birds who began the journey as a noisy multitude end as a silent, eternal oneness—lost, found, and forever transformed.
ʿAṭṭār closes with a quiet prayer: may we, too, become nothing, so that we may become everything.
- The illustration on this folio depicts a scene from the mystical poem. The birds, which symbolize individual souls in search of the simurgh (a mystical bird representing ultimate spiritual unity), are assembled in an idyllic landscape to begin their pilgrimage under the leadership of a hoopoe.
🧵2/4
The Valley of Love (the most quoted of the Seven Valleys)
The next stage is the Valley of Love’s fire;
Here reason is consumed in fierce desire.
Love has no bounds, no highway and no end;
Here heart and soul in one mad blaze descend.
The lover has no home, no creed, no goal
Except the burning that consumes the soul.
Majnun, who wandered deserts for his Layla,
Was but a child beside the true lover’s fire.
A thousand caravans may pass him by,
He sees no road, no moon, no earth, no sky.
Love’s pain is sweet; its bitterness is wine;
Its wound is joy, its death is life divine.
If you would taste this wine, then cast away
The shame of men, the hope of paradise.
Burn every veil that separates the heart
From its Beloved; let every veil depart.
Here Joseph’s beauty is a common thing,
And Zulaikha’s passion an eternal spring.
When love has grown to its consummate power
It asks no comfort and it knows no hour.
The lover lives a hundred years in one
Brief sigh, and in one sigh a thousand die.
He is the moth that circles round the flame,
candle and the burning are the same.
- Nightingale with Rose from the Qajar Album (Persia, ca. 1800–1850, vibrant Qajar-era miniature)
The Valley of Love (the most quoted of the Seven Valleys)
The next stage is the Valley of Love’s fire;
Here reason is consumed in fierce desire.
Love has no bounds, no highway and no end;
Here heart and soul in one mad blaze descend.
The lover has no home, no creed, no goal
Except the burning that consumes the soul.
Majnun, who wandered deserts for his Layla,
Was but a child beside the true lover’s fire.
A thousand caravans may pass him by,
He sees no road, no moon, no earth, no sky.
Love’s pain is sweet; its bitterness is wine;
Its wound is joy, its death is life divine.
If you would taste this wine, then cast away
The shame of men, the hope of paradise.
Burn every veil that separates the heart
From its Beloved; let every veil depart.
Here Joseph’s beauty is a common thing,
And Zulaikha’s passion an eternal spring.
When love has grown to its consummate power
It asks no comfort and it knows no hour.
The lover lives a hundred years in one
Brief sigh, and in one sigh a thousand die.
He is the moth that circles round the flame,
candle and the burning are the same.
- Nightingale with Rose from the Qajar Album (Persia, ca. 1800–1850, vibrant Qajar-era miniature)
🧵 3/4
(…and the story continues for hundreds more lines until the miraculous reversal, but this is the passage that breaks hearts every time.)
The Story of Sheikh Sanʿān – the moment of his total fall and the disciples’ despair (the emotional heart of the poem for most readers)
The sheikh, who once had led the prayer for kings,
Now wore the Christian girdle, fed the swine,
And drank the wine that every Muslim shuns.
His prayer-rug burned, his rosary was lost;
Four hundred pilgrims saw their master lost.
They wept until their tears became a flood
That carved a channel through the city’s mud. One cried: “O sheikh, have you forgotten God?”
Another tore his robe and beat his head
Against the wall until the blood ran red.
Forty days and nights they circled Mecca’s stone
In proxy for the master who had flown
From faith. At last, in dream, the Prophet came
And said: “My pity is a healing flame.
Your sheikh is saved; the girl will soon believe;
Go, bring him home, and all your hearts relieve.”
But when they reached the Christian town once more
They found the sheikh still drunk outside her door.
He cried: “Depart! I have no wish to leave
This threshold where my soul has learned to live.
I have become a Christian for her sake;
Go back, and leave me to the choice I make.”
His oldest friend fell weeping at his feet:
“Remember God, remember all we were!”
The sheikh replied: “I have no memory
Of anything except her witching eye.
If I return, my heart will break in two;
I choose this ruin — it is sweet and true.”
- Shaikh San'an beneath the Window of the Christian Maiden (Folio 18r from a 1483 Mantiq al-Ṭayr manuscript, painted ca. 1600 in Isfahan by Habiballah of Sava ca. 1600
(…and the story continues for hundreds more lines until the miraculous reversal, but this is the passage that breaks hearts every time.)
The Story of Sheikh Sanʿān – the moment of his total fall and the disciples’ despair (the emotional heart of the poem for most readers)
The sheikh, who once had led the prayer for kings,
Now wore the Christian girdle, fed the swine,
And drank the wine that every Muslim shuns.
His prayer-rug burned, his rosary was lost;
Four hundred pilgrims saw their master lost.
They wept until their tears became a flood
That carved a channel through the city’s mud. One cried: “O sheikh, have you forgotten God?”
Another tore his robe and beat his head
Against the wall until the blood ran red.
Forty days and nights they circled Mecca’s stone
In proxy for the master who had flown
From faith. At last, in dream, the Prophet came
And said: “My pity is a healing flame.
Your sheikh is saved; the girl will soon believe;
Go, bring him home, and all your hearts relieve.”
But when they reached the Christian town once more
They found the sheikh still drunk outside her door.
He cried: “Depart! I have no wish to leave
This threshold where my soul has learned to live.
I have become a Christian for her sake;
Go back, and leave me to the choice I make.”
His oldest friend fell weeping at his feet:
“Remember God, remember all we were!”
The sheikh replied: “I have no memory
Of anything except her witching eye.
If I return, my heart will break in two;
I choose this ruin — it is sweet and true.”
- Shaikh San'an beneath the Window of the Christian Maiden (Folio 18r from a 1483 Mantiq al-Ṭayr manuscript, painted ca. 1600 in Isfahan by Habiballah of Sava ca. 1600
After 2022, Europe expelled 400 Russian intelligence officers. Russia's sabotage in Europe fails to stop weapons supplies, but Russians don’t give up, and form new networks — Babel.
The danger arrives when several strikes go simultaneous. European logistics freeze for weeks.
1/
The danger arrives when several strikes go simultaneous. European logistics freeze for weeks.
1/
NATO has four logistics vulnerabilities. European railways fail military standards. Trains carrying Ukraine aid still stuck at borders due to paperwork.
Russia recruits railway and warehouse workers across Europe. Any corrupt employee leaks train schedules and routes.
2/
Russia recruits railway and warehouse workers across Europe. Any corrupt employee leaks train schedules and routes.
2/
Romania exercises in autumn 2025: 5,000 troops from several countries failed to deploy fast. Moving across NATO borders took weeks, not hours — mostly due to paperwork.
NATO has no single coordinator for troop movement.
3/
NATO has no single coordinator for troop movement.
3/
It is insane how every so called "expert," academic getting 5 minutes of fame, podcaster, or media personality starts their critique or prediction of the war in Iran with regime change. Too bad it is a house of cards built on a lie 🧵
Such as "in all of military history, bombing campaigns have never caused a regime change." "The U.S. will lose the war, be embarrassed, didn't plan for this or that...Iran will win and be stronger...because the operation won't cause regime change."
Such as "in all of military history, bombing campaigns have never caused a regime change." "The U.S. will lose the war, be embarrassed, didn't plan for this or that...Iran will win and be stronger...because the operation won't cause regime change."
Fact: In every speech, briefing, and official statement from President Trump, Secretary of Defense Hegseth, Secretary of State Rubio, the Joint Chiefs, and the White House, the objectives of Operation Epic Fury have been:
1. Destroy Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal and production capacity
2. Annihilate its navy
3. Ensure Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon
4. End the regime’s ability to arm, fund, and direct terrorist proxies
1. Destroy Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal and production capacity
2. Annihilate its navy
3. Ensure Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon
4. End the regime’s ability to arm, fund, and direct terrorist proxies
They have never listed “regime change” as an official U.S. objective of the military operation.
OK - now at presentment in USA v. Zhan Petrosyants, good friend of ex-Mayor Eric Adams, last seen dodging a GEICO subpoena, now arrested for auto insurance fraud. His retained lawyer has been here in the SDNY Mag court waiting for the pre-trial services report 1/x
Waiting here for past hour with Petrosyants defense lawyer schmoozing, saying he'll need a New Jersey lawyer (presumably to secure the bond), commenting on a case wheeled out from grand jury - finally now pre-trial services report arrives
Woman who's been waiting here in the courtroom is now told to go to 26 Federal Plaza and "pick up his luggage" - hmm. She will not be bringing the luggage back to the courthouse, but is told (by lawyer) to "call an Uber for your husband." Waiting for judge
Democracy and our Transatlantic Aliance NATO is constantly under attack and there are clear patterns, how both left and right are attacted in order to cresh (subversion)
This 🧵 presents how both sides are undermined
This 🧵 presents how both sides are undermined
For the left-wing:
1. First, they want you to be woke
2. Than, they force you to admit 2 + 2 = 5*
3. They got you chanting no-king along with people holding communist flags
4. You want USA out of NATO
*[1 + 1 is more than 2 genders]
1. First, they want you to be woke
2. Than, they force you to admit 2 + 2 = 5*
3. They got you chanting no-king along with people holding communist flags
4. You want USA out of NATO
*[1 + 1 is more than 2 genders]
For the right-wing:
1. You need to be tough
2. Look at the land or something else they took from you or at the land or something that could be yours
3. Your country is the best and to grow it needs to become an empire
4. You want US troops out of your country and out of NATO
1. You need to be tough
2. Look at the land or something else they took from you or at the land or something that could be yours
3. Your country is the best and to grow it needs to become an empire
4. You want US troops out of your country and out of NATO
Most men’s polo game is weak.
Too many shiny, poly-blend “performance” polos guys try to pass off as casual wear when they belong on the golf course.
I see them everywhere.
Here are 5 options that are 10x better and all under $65👇
Too many shiny, poly-blend “performance” polos guys try to pass off as casual wear when they belong on the golf course.
I see them everywhere.
Here are 5 options that are 10x better and all under $65👇
The Open Collar Retro Inspired Polo
Classic option. Clean, elegant design. A bit of texture in a 100% cotton knit style.👌
These are from Tie Bar (affiliate): bit.ly/47CIx9x
Classic option. Clean, elegant design. A bit of texture in a 100% cotton knit style.👌
These are from Tie Bar (affiliate): bit.ly/47CIx9x
The Zip Style Polo
This is a more modern take on the polo. The zip placket offers a very sleek, contemporary look. Would look especially sharp paired with some neutral slacks and dress footwear.
The polos you see below are from Zara.
This is a more modern take on the polo. The zip placket offers a very sleek, contemporary look. Would look especially sharp paired with some neutral slacks and dress footwear.
The polos you see below are from Zara.
Following Chelsea's announcement that the club incurred a Premier League record loss of £262m, more bad news may follow in the coming weeks; they may be banned from next season's Champions League- even if they finish in the top five of this season's Premier League.
Last summer, Chelsea entered into a settlement agreement with UEFA as a result of breaching their Financial Sustainability Regulations. The club were hit with a £17m fine. Notably, the club agreed to a set of targets for the next few seasons.
The club submitted a business plan to UEFA to show how they would move towards financial sustainability. This was based on the club, at the time, sharing their projected 2024/25 position (which has only been made public by the club today).
ok so here's how drift got drained for $200M+. on-chain receipts for everything. its insane tbh
3 weeks before the exploit, the attacker mints 750M of a fake token "CarbonVote Token" (CVT) and creates a raydium pool with $500 of liquidity. sets the price at ~$1/token.
mint: G84LEhbNMR1yYbHgHbnNYNSK8mpTKcazh5jcW5yMPQKo
creator: FnYXwy7qEtGV4cj1Sf6tht7VDsiytFjJeF9yd4LpAjjx
they wash trade it for weeks to build oracle price history.
mint: G84LEhbNMR1yYbHgHbnNYNSK8mpTKcazh5jcW5yMPQKo
creator: FnYXwy7qEtGV4cj1Sf6tht7VDsiytFjJeF9yd4LpAjjx
they wash trade it for weeks to build oracle price history.
the attacker uses a compromised drift admin key (H7PiGqqUaanBovwKgEtreJbKmQe6dbq6VTrw6guy7ZgL) to list CVT as a new spot market on drift. [april1]
in the same tx, they moon the withdraw guard thresholds on USDC and 4 other markets to 500T, basically disabling all withdrawal limits.
tx: solscan.io/tx/4a5962Rdqd9…
in the same tx, they moon the withdraw guard thresholds on USDC and 4 other markets to 500T, basically disabling all withdrawal limits.
tx: solscan.io/tx/4a5962Rdqd9…
1/ The Russian IT sector faces being crippled by new, harsh penalties for using VPNs. The Russian public also faces an imminent ban on the use of foreign AI systems, which developers say will wreck Russia's development of its own AIs. ⬇️
2/ Russia's Ministry of Digital Development, Communications, and Mass Media has put forward a bill on state regulation of artificial intelligence, which essentially outlaws the use of foreign AI systems such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.
3/ Although they are officially blocked in Russia, foreign AI systems are widely used via VPNs. 51% of Russians – and 81% of those under 34 said in a 2025 TASS poll that they had used AI in the past year, with ChatGPT and Deepseek accounting for 47% of the Russian market.
This fact:
"Oil revenue collapsed to roughly 5% of the national budget, down from 32% the prior year. Taxes increased over 60%. Food prices climbed at least 50%. ATMs across major cities are running out of cash."
Underlines a major point of mine. 🧵
1/
"Oil revenue collapsed to roughly 5% of the national budget, down from 32% the prior year. Taxes increased over 60%. Food prices climbed at least 50%. ATMs across major cities are running out of cash."
Underlines a major point of mine. 🧵
1/
Since Clausewitz, the West recognized "war as an extension of politics."
The corollary of that is "politics is an extension of money."
Iran doesn't have any money, thanks to hyper-inflation and now an 84% reduction in oil revenue.
2/
The corollary of that is "politics is an extension of money."
Iran doesn't have any money, thanks to hyper-inflation and now an 84% reduction in oil revenue.
2/
The failed January 2026 Iranian uprising kicked off because hyperinflation caused massive food insecurity that required the mass murder of 30,000 (+) Iranian protestors to suppress.
The 12-day war and the current one have made Iranian hyper-inflation far worse.
3/
The 12-day war and the current one have made Iranian hyper-inflation far worse.
3/
🚨The Brazil Censorship Files, Part III
We subpoenaed secret censorship orders from Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. We received them as part of our oversight of how foreign censorship affects the rights of American citizens.
Our takeaway: Moraes and other Brazilian officials are trying to censor AMERICAN speech.
🧵
We subpoenaed secret censorship orders from Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. We received them as part of our oversight of how foreign censorship affects the rights of American citizens.
Our takeaway: Moraes and other Brazilian officials are trying to censor AMERICAN speech.
🧵
The Committee has warned about Justice Moraes’s secret censorship campaign for two years.
In 2024, we released two reports detailing Brazil’s censorship regime and the Biden-Harris Administration’s silence on the issue.
And in February 2025, we subpoenaed Big Tech’s communications with foreign censors who are trying to silence Americans’ online speech. In response, Big Tech has produced thousands of documents providing additional evidence of Brazilian censorship demands.
Read our first report here:
judiciary.house.gov/media/press-re…
Read our second report here: judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subs…
In 2024, we released two reports detailing Brazil’s censorship regime and the Biden-Harris Administration’s silence on the issue.
And in February 2025, we subpoenaed Big Tech’s communications with foreign censors who are trying to silence Americans’ online speech. In response, Big Tech has produced thousands of documents providing additional evidence of Brazilian censorship demands.
Read our first report here:
judiciary.house.gov/media/press-re…
Read our second report here: judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subs…
These documents show that since at least July 2020, Brazilian judges—particularly Justice Moraes—have tried to force tech companies to remove or censor accounts globally, directly infringing on American free speech and U.S. sovereignty.
Anthropic DMCA’d my Claude code fork.
…which did not have the Claude Code source. It was only for a PR where I edited a skill a few weeks ago.
Absolutely pathetic.
…which did not have the Claude Code source. It was only for a PR where I edited a skill a few weeks ago.
Absolutely pathetic.
This is not an April fools joke. This is a violation of the law. I intend to fight it fully.
@github - Anthropic has broken the DMCA and their requests need to be reversed.
@github - Anthropic has broken the DMCA and their requests need to be reversed.
@github It looks like it was reversed, my repo is back up but I was not notified.
